And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
I ... will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked - not contradictory of Ezekiel 18:4; Ezekiel 18:9, and Genesis 18:23. Ezekiel here views the mere outward aspect of the indiscriminate universality of the national calamity. But really the same captivity to the "righteous" would prove a blessing, as a wholesome discipline, which to the "wicked" would be an unmitigated punishment. The godly were sealed with a mark (Ezekiel 9:4), not for outward exemption from the common calamity. but as marked for the secret interpositions of Providence overruling even evil to their good. The godly were by comparison so few that their salvation is not brought into view here, but the universality of the judgment.